If it had been only one skeleton, the project would have continued. Even a few dozen skeletons might not have been enough to persuade Washington state officials to abandon a $283 million bridge-repair project along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, about 65 miles northwest of here.
But what construction workers stumbled upon went beyond anything ever found in the Pacific Northwest: an ancient Indian village dating back 17 centuries, with lodges, dance halls, and cemeteries containing hundreds of skeletal remains. Nearly 300 complete skeletons have been unearthed, many of them buried in clusters, including entire extended families.
One thing: ''Every time we'd find one of our ancestors, we'd wrap them in a blanket and put them in a cedar box, and pack them in, and you could feel the silence among us. We wondered: 'Is this my great-grandfather? Is this my great-grandmother?' " Um, no. Possibly (great x 82-ish)-grandmother/father.
And still more from Scotland Digging for clues to North Berwick's past
HISTORIC relics from one of the first settlements at North Berwick are being unearthed at a new archaeological dig.
The excavation is taking place on the site of a future extension to the Scottish Seabird Centre at the town’s harbour.
It follows on from a dig held four years ago which uncovered skeletal remains, including those of a murder victim, on the site of the old St Andrew’s Kirk graveyard, which is next to the centre.
And archaeologists working on the new site say it may contain even more fascinating artefacts than those previously uncovered.
Generally beheaded???? Human Sacrifice Was Common in Burnt City
According to archeological research in the 5000-year-old burnt city, in eastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, sacrificing human beings was a common practice in ancient times.
After excavating a number of graves in the cemetery of the burnt city, the Iranian archeological team came across signs of murder and generally beheaded bodies.
Major Climate Change Occurred 5,200 Years Ago: Evidence Suggests That History Could Repeat Itself
Glaciologist Lonnie Thompson worries that he may have found clues that show history repeating itself, and if he is right, the result could have important implications to modern society.
Thompson has spent his career trekking to the far corners of the world to find remote ice fields and then bring back cores drilled from their centers. Within those cores are the records of ancient climate from across the globe.
From the mountains of data drawn by analyzing countless ice cores, and a meticulous review of sometimes obscure historic records, Thompson and his research team at Ohio State University are convinced that the global climate has changed dramatically.
Hardly news, but it sounds good.
Tribal rock art offers clues to religious beliefs of old
Unlike the imposing grandeur of the cathedrals of Europe, a spiritual place on a mountain ledge in southern Arizona, also recognized as a holy site for hundreds of years, has a sense of serenity to it - an unspoiled, natural feel.
Many generations of American Indians have used it for religious ceremonies, leaving evidence of their other-world communion - symbols painted on the rock face sheltered by an overhang, cryptic images that confound those of today's so-called "organized" religions, but which continue to hold special meaning for tribal members.